Nineteen protestors demanding Senator Richard Durbin oppose cuts to Social Security and other social programs as part of any deficit deal were arrested on Friday in his office and the lobby of the Federal Building, Kari Lydersen reports at In These Times. (See our previous post for more.)

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The so-called “grand bargain” is a “grand swindle” which ignores the “victory for middle-class populism” that last week’s election represents, according to Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America’s Future.

“Within hours of the election, the austerity posse was fear-mongering around the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ and pressuring Washington to accept a ‘grand bargain’ before the end of the year that would slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – and plunge us into a double-dip recession.”

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Durbin and other deficit hawks “are hoping that the hype around the budget standoff (aka ‘fiscal cliff’) can be used for a grand bargain that eviscerates the country’s two most important social programs, Social Security and Medicare,” writes Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, noting that “they made a point of keeping this plan out of election year politics.”

But they must act quickly, he points out – because “one of the pillars of their deficit horror story could be collapsing.

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By Stephen Franklin Community Media Workshop A 3-year-old child died on a plane from Chicago to Poland. This, Magdalena Pantelis instantly knew, was a story her readers would care about. But she needed more detail to write about it for the Polish Daily News, the nation’s oldest daily newspaper in Polish, founded Jan. […]

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